An independent journal about the Gannett Co. and the news industry's digital transition

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Phoenix | Hyperlocal news blog network set for '12

Like many newspapers, The Arizona Republic is advertising openings for reporters and editors, even as Gannett continues to shrink the size of its overall newsrooms.

But one opening, highlighted today by the Society of Professional Journalists today, is especially intriguing. It's for a neighborhood content editor/producer. SPJ, apparently quoting directly from a Republic posting, describes it this way:

"We are looking to launch a hyperlocal neighborhood content/blog network in early 2012. We aim to pilot the idea in the East Valley/Scottsdale and eventually grow the concept to other parts of the Valley. We are seeking an experienced, community-minded person to oversee all aspects of content creation and editing for this project. The neighborhood content editor/producer will recruit, train and manage dozens of contributors who will publish information on digital platforms."

Sounds like a preemptive strike against Patch -- which, curiously, hasn't launched in Arizona yet. I wonder what -- if anything -- the Republic will be paying these dozens of contributors?

14 comments:

And what they will post will likely be self-serving, snarky and sometimes snide commentary about the neighborhood passing as "news" from what I have seen on other sites.

There will be practically no attention paid to the basics: who, what, when, where or even why. Sadly, however, that is now the case in a number of "regular" newspaper articles written by "real" journalists who have been raised on the "Inside Edition" and "Current Affair" brand of media.

This is interesting. I wonder if the long rumored newsroom reorganization is tied to this hyperlocal blog effort. We've been hearing about a total reorganization of the Republic's newsroom for months now. It was supposed to roll out in October, but we missed that deadline. No word on when it well actually roll out or what it means.

But 3:46 is right about the contributors likely being paid "exactly nothing." There's this weird dysfunction in newspapers these days - they want to be recognized for strong, professional content, but then they push for free content from people in town that doesn't begin to meet professional standards. Think of the message that sends to readers: We're about great content. Oh, yeah, except for that terrible stuff we post with our great content. But it's free and helps fill the space between the ads.

Wilmington recently transferred an editor from the young-drunk-readers (and boobs!) magazine to a similar type of position. It's not a hyperlocal/neighborhoods site, but her job sounds alike in that she's responsible for developing and curating local reader-submitted content.

Well, it was only four years ago that the hyperlocal neighborhood sections were all the rage at the C-J in Louisville. Everyone said, this is the future. This is where the investment is going. And then in June, they laid off 4 of the 8 remaining neighborhoods reporters (there were 11 originally) and one of the two editors. So if we're now swinging back to hyperlocal, heaven help us. We need a new buzzword strategy.

This topic reminds me of when I was in high school, and was the scorekeeper for the baseball team. I'd call in the game results and a synopsis to the local newspaper, and every couple weeks they sent me a check for literally $2.50 . . .

Also, can't help noticing the increasing byline in The Republic of stories written by a reporter (or just as likely, PR flack) of "Special For The Republic". And it's not just write-ups of this week's doings in Vegas. A bunch of the stories for this week's NASCAR race west of Phoenix are "Special For The Republic".

Jim, you should point out the stupidity of Gannett doing this when they've already pulled the plug on previous hyperlocal efforts in other markets, most notably InJersey. Despite coming before Patch, InJersey was by most accounts a complete failure.

This is going on all over Gannett. KUSA-TV in Denver has been doing this kind of thing for years. They would rather see snow pictures on someone's patio furniture than to use video from their professional (paid) photojournalists. They would rather use video from an amateur that looks terrible. We were told that their compensation would be their name being mentioned on TV. Ohhh boy, how exciting! What it really did was piss off the professional photojournalist staff and editors.

If the Arizona Republic has even middling success with this, the company will co-opt it, give it a national brand, and force all its papers to do hyperlocal exactly the same way. And it will fail, as did sites such as Moms Like Me. Newspapering is not a one-size-fits-all process, and especially not something like local news.

It's worth a try, I think it should be called Turbolocal or Mondolocal. Hyperlocal makes me think of someone running around out of control and looking crazy, but local. This won't work in the 5th largest city in America with such a large geographical footprint unless there's a team. Good luck to whomever they pick and I might suggest they keep their resume updated.

Agree with the last post. Cronkite is dominating this newsroom and it has to stop. These kids don't know their head from their hindquarters. I'm tired of having to show them how to do things around here. Management preaches accountability for everyone but themselves and Gannett keeps them around because they all cover for each other and make it look like things are peachy. When one of these kids screws up the employee with experience is blamed for not training the kid properly. Instead management should take the blame and live with it for putting us in this situation. God I hate this place!

Jim says: "Proceed with caution; this is a free-for-all comment zone. I try to correct or clarify incorrect information. But I can't catch everything. Please keep your posts focused on Gannett and media-related subjects. Note that I occasionally review comments in advance, to reject inappropriate ones. And I ignore hostile posters, and recommend you do, too."